1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a protective vest.
2. Description of Prior Art
The invention relates more particularly to a protective vest that has a particular use by yaghtsmen and sail board sailors. Such vests are known and often contain in-built rigid reinforcing members, padding and straps to support an upper body region of the sailor. The vest may formed as or be attached to a harness in use.
Broadly stated, presently used protective vests are designed to lessen or absorb some of the forces applied to a sailor""s body as he carries out tasks associated with sailing, especially in inclement weather. Thus far, vests that effectively or significantly reduce or absorb impacts caused by waves of water striking the sailor or experienced by the sailor falling into the water at high speed are not available.
It is an object of the invention to overcome or at least reduce this problem.
According to the invention, there is provided protective vest including significant regions of externally exposed padding comprising an open sieve like mattress formed of resilient water-resistant strands.
The mattress may be generally planar and comprise inner and an outer woven honeycombed layers joined together by a plurality of strands extending laterally between the layers.
Apertures of the honeycombs preferably have effective diameters approximately equal to a lateral separation between the inner and outer layer.
The protective vest may have removable rigid impact modules for reinforcing the vest underneath the exposed padding.
Pockets may be formed in the vest for slidingly receiving the impact modules.
Three modules may be provided respectively for left and right side lumbar regions of a user""s body and a central spine region of the vest.
A single belt may be provided for holding the three modules in position in respective pockets of the vest.